The Arizona Legislature is considering two bills that would benefit churches and religious organizations, their tax bills and preschools and nonprofit businesses they operate.

House Bill 2645 exemps preschools and day care centers operated by churches and other religious nonprofits from having to pay state unemployment insurance taxes.

Those church-run operations were previously exempted from paying unemployment insurance taxes, but the Arizona Department of Economic Security changed that rule last year, according to Cathi Herrod, president of the Center for Arizona Policy.

The conservative Christian group backs that bill, which has passed the Arizona House of Representatives and is under considering by the Arizona Senate.

CAP is also supporting House Bill 2446. It expands the ability for churches and religious groups to invoke nonprofit and tax-exempt status on properties. The bill comes out of a state tax dispute in Quartzite between a church that was waiting for federal nonprofit status approval and assessors who were trying to tax that entity.

The state bill would give churches and religious nonprofits tax-exempt status on holdings in such instances if they were not trying to profit from them.

HB 2446 has also passed the Arizona House and is also in the state Senate.

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